Thank you to my readers and especially to my reviewers! Sorry this chapter took a little longer to get out.

"Fuyuumi-san…?"

"Uh, Y-Yes, Shimizu-kun?" she stammered. Her heart hammered in her chest.

His eyes…What was that look in his eyes?

"Would you like another sparkler…?"

"Oh, umm…yes, yes please."

They repeated their earlier exchange, albeit with a bit more trembling and nervousness on her part, and crouched, watching the dancing sparks.

She surreptitiously glanced at him. Their eyes met. She quickly averted her eyes, a light pink creeping over her cheeks.

She looked again. His eyes unwaveringly met hers. She ducked her head, her blush deepening.

A third time she turned her eyes to him. Again blue-green met light pink. But this time, she resisted the impulse to turn her face away. As they held their gaze, her face progressively turned redder and redder.

Suddenly their sparklers both went out, dowsing them in darkness. Shouko took the opportunity to hide her now beet-red face. She never suspected how lovely she looked bathed in the moonlight.

"Fuyuumi-san…" Keiichi murmured dreamily.

"Y-Yes, Shimizu…kun?"

"Have you written your tanzaku yet…?"

"Oh! Uh, N-No, actually. H-Have you?"

"No…I haven't either…Shall we go do so…?"

"Yes…"

They quietly cleaned up their sparklers and headed back down the moonlit path. Shouko was so absorbed in her thoughts that she bumped lightly into Keiichi's back.

"Oh! I-I'm so sorry!" she cried, almost leaping back.

He turned and smiled at her. "I didn't want you to get lost so I waited…" He looked ready to laugh a little. "I guess I waited…a little too long…"

"Ah…" She felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

"It's not…too much farther…" He was slowly returning to his normal, sleepy self.

They made their way back to the festival. As they entered, Shouko struggled to keep up with Keiichi. The crowd had grown as the night progressed. Suddenly, the crowd around Shouko swelled, sweeping her along.

"Ah!" she cried, flailing as she tried to keep from falling. A hand suddenly grasped hers and managed to pull her out of the crowd.

"Th-Thank you!" she thanked her unknown savior, breathing heavily. She looked up to meet Keiichi's blue-green eyes.

"The tanzaku…are over there…Fuyuumi-san…" He pointed, unfazed by the fact that he was holding her hand. "Let's…slowly walk…together…"

She nodded in embarrassment and followed him as they slowly wove their way through the crowd. Every so often, she'd glance down at her hand, half-expecting him to drop it at any moment, but he didn't. As they continued to weave through the crowd, she kept her eyes on him.

Her heart raced and her cheeks flushed pink. She knew that he was only holding her hand because she had already demonstrated that she was incapable of keeping up with him, but…she couldn't deny that somewhere deep, deep down, she wished that it was for a different reason. She had had a crush on him for a while, but he had seemed interested in Kaho-senpai. There was no comparison between someone as wonderful as her senpai and her, so she kept quiet, choosing to admire him from afar while steadily burying her unrequited feelings for him. She thought she had been doing a good job too, until that electric touch the other day showed her just how wrong she was. While she could lie to her head, her heart knew the truth. All that time she hadn't been getting over him, she had been steadily falling more in love with him.

And the events of the night had revived a tiny little flame of hope in her heart: a flame that she believed had been snuffed out long ago when she first came to believe that Kahoko held the golden-haired boy's affection. Despite her better judgment, she was allowing herself to hope that she hadn't been imagining the tender way he had looked at her, to hope that the kindness and consideration he had been showing her tonight weren't simply because he was a kind person…to dream that he could care for her in return.

They stopped. Keiichi turned to look at her and announced quietly, "We're here…Fuyuumi-san…"

This is the second to the last chapter, so we're almost at the end! Thank you for reading! I don't have any new cultural aspects to comment on this time, but I'm glad that people have been enjoying learning about Tanabata!

As always, please review!